Casa Canonica - Marche

Accommodates 6+2 — 4 Bedrooms — 3 Baths

La Canonica means “parsonage”, and as you will imagine, that is what our first-ever vacation rental in the Marche region was: the rectory of a ruined church, some of whose remains are visible just at the rear of the house.

Before talking about the house, first let’s talk about the area. The Marche is the region of Italy directly east of northern Tuscany and north and east of Umbria. It is both a coastal and a mountainous region, with a long Adriatic coastline forming its eastern limit and a long north- south stretch of the Apennines forming its spine. The principal city is Ancona. The most well- known hilltown is Urbino. There are gracious and not-so-gracious beach towns, charming and unspoiled hilltowns, and a magnificent and varied scenery. Two of the great summer opera festivals of Italy take place here (within easy driving distance of Casa Canonica): at Macerata in a wonderful amphitheatre, and the world-famous Rossini festival at Pesaro along the Adriatic coast.

Vacanza Bella’s Marche holiday home called Casa Canonica is located in the province of Macerata, literally within the Monti Sibillini National Park. So what’s to do here other than enjoy the majestic mountain view from your front yard? First, outdoors, the national park itself offers hiking, mountain climbing and mountain biking, horseback riding, botany, birding, butterflies, eco-activities and water sports on several neat little nearby lakes. The Adriatic beaches are an easy 45 minutes’ drive: You can try a different one every day.

Hilltowns? San Ginesio – OK, we’d never heard of it either – is the closest village to the house, and as it turns out, Italian television just did a feature show touting it as one of the most beautiful hilltowns in Italy. More than a “hilltown”, the most fascinating city to visit is Ascoli Piceno, a delightfully picturesque provincial capital. Also interesting are Caldarola (for the castles), Macerata, Camerino (a university town providing a neat student energy), Cingoli (for the views), Tolentino (above all for the basilica of San Nicola and its delightful cloister), Jesi, and Fermo. You should go visit Leopardi’s house and Gigli’s grave (and museum about him) at Recanati and the Virgin’s flying house at Loreto (both Recanati and Loreto have excellent little art/artifact museums as well). For kitsch (if Loreto hasn’t sated you), you can even visit postage-stamp- sized San Marino, have your passports stamped (and buy postage stamps).

One sight you cannot miss is the caverns at Frasassi. These are first-class and should be one of the highlights of your stay.

What you really need for the Marche is a good detailed guidebook. For there are dozens of delightful little unspoiled hilltop hamlets, Romanesque churches, ruined abbeys, village churches, local open-air markets – all of them waiting for you to explore without the company of other Americans, as this area remains largely undiscovered by those from the other side of the Atlantic. (And let’s hope that, with the exception of you, it stays that way.)

The point is this: Variety. Mountain lakes and trails, hilltop villages, ruined abbeys, caverns, beaches, neat provincial capitals – even outlet stores. This area has it all.

On to Casa Canonica. If you look at a map, the nearest villages are San Ginesio and Sarnano (both with tourist offices which you should visit for hiking maps and much other helpful material); the nearest large towns are Macerata and Tolentino. The house, made of stones from the nearby river, is American-owned, carefully restored, and well-maintained. The grounds, recently totally relandscaped but still not overly manicured, are dotted with apple, walnut, and fig trees, interspersed with flowers, grape vines, an herb garden, gently weaving pathways, and little places to sit, all enjoying those delightful views. A characteristic iron and granite table seats 10 comfortably for alfresco dining. Most important, the pool area is particularly inviting, with its own chestnut pergola, umbrella, sky chair, and other seating, giving the whole a really self-contained feeling as opposed as a mere adjunct to the house.

Inside, you’ll find original terracotta floors, beamed ceilings, and stone throughout. You enter through classic double doors into a spacious dining room with high beamed ceiling. The kitchen, recently remodeled (and therefore different from what appears in the adjacent photo), is fully equipped with all-new appliances, granite countertop, oven, fridge/freezer, microwave, dishwasher, and clothes washer/dryer. Off the kitchen is a guest half-bath. The smallish living room has comfy not- elegant furniture with a neat original wood-burning fireplace. It also comes equipped with satellite TV and DVD player.

Upstairs, reached by somewhat uneven stone steps which almost certainly predate the house, you’ll find Casa Canonica’s 4 bedrooms. In essence, there are two master bedrooms, one with indivisible matrimonial bed, one divisible into twins. In addition, there are two smaller bedrooms, each with “trundle” beds, that is, one twin with another tucked under it which can be extracted and raised so that both are at the same level. The trundle beds are excellent quality, but these bedrooms are small and are best for children or for one adult each. Canonica is not a house, in our opinion, for 3 couples, much less 4. It is best for one family, or for two small families, or for two couples, or 5 adults. Six adults can fit snugly if 2 of the adults occupy, individually, the two smaller bedrooms. The great and unexpected feature of Casa Canonica is the bathrooms, all with American-style showers and American-style water pressure. One of the master bedrooms has an en-suite bath; the other three bedrooms share two additional hall bathrooms among them.

We loved Casa Canonica when we visited it recently. If you want luxury with staff bowing and scraping and the sheets and towels changed daily, please don’t come here. If you’re looking for a charming lived-in home loved by its owners who are eager to share with you the attractions of the house and the Marche, then you can do no better than to give Casa Canonica your serious consideration. And besides: The enormous changes the owners have undertaken over the past couple of years have rendered Casa Canonica even more welcoming, with a really bright, fresh, contemporary feel without at the same time detracting from the period atmosphere. Oh, yes, restaurants: The owners are food fanatics and keep a house book with the names of all their favorite places within a 5- to 30-minute drive of the house; they assure us that there are plenty of great places to eat.